Quotes

I've been very lucky to work with great filmmakers. But I think my days of just freely acting regularly, that being my sole creative fulfillment, are gone.

I've been painting and drawing fish since I was very young. My mom found old pictures I did when I was around 6 or 7 of all these sharks and scuba diver looking back, a big ship, throwing a harpoon. There was already a message within what I saw.

It's interesting because you feel on the one hand, we understand people from what the say, and in another sense, you'd think that you'd be able to convey more through dialogue.

War is chaotic and when you start having a larger scale film and you have a lot of safety protocols and choreography, I would imagine it becomes more difficult.

Obviously I'm not there to pick up anybody, but I'm not afraid to hang out in a predominantly gay establishment.

It's great when people appreciate your work, but I don't know how seriously to take it. The amazing thing is that I found something so early that I can support myself doing, and that can even be extremely lucrative, but I love it either way.

It's interesting, winning an Academy Award as a young man... life-changing, but I'm just me within that. It's been very helpful for my career, but I'm trying to stay on the path I was on before.

I grew up without a lot of money and my parents grew up with far less money. And that's kept me in line. Really in line.

What guides me is to do work that's more avant-garde - things that I think are special. You can easily become a celebrity and get caught up in all that blur. I just want to work and surprise myself.

It would be terribly boring to be earnest.

Painting, music, photography, and visual art have been creative forms of expression for me for decades.

I love the accessibility that my great nation affords us, but it is virtually inescapable for most people in America, and many places abroad, to rely on inexpensive yet unhealthy meals as a main source of sustenance.

In my work as an actor, I have been given even greater insights and have been guided towards empathy and a consciousness of those who are less fortunate.

I was depressed for a year after 'The Pianist,' and I don't suffer from that, generally. It wasn't just a depression; it was a mourning.

The only reason to do a television series is to make it successful. And if it is successful, that's a six or seven year commitment.

I grew up in Queens in N.Y., and in parts of my neighbourhood, there were a lot of Italian Americans and a lot of people who were either affiliated with nefarious people or had seen so many movies that they were embodying that.

Life is very complicated. I look to collaborate with artistic people and to go into an endeavor without judgment and to hopefully be treated with the same.

The beauty of comedy is you can really push things. Hopefully, you're with people with a sense of humor and can relate to it.

My work as an actor is limited by the voice of the director and the writing.

You go to a theater, you're in a darkened room, and you watch someone that you don't really know how many children they have or what their father's nickname might be; you don't have references and databases and rumors and half-truths - you're just transported by their storytelling.

I've been taking a lot of time to paint and be in nature. I would say I'm happier as a person. More centered. More free.

I'm a man at the end of the day and I come from the streets, the trenches, I came from nothing, water and cornflakes.

After a tough day, I go eat some steak and potatoes and take a shower.

People will always have their opinions on how hard you trained, especially when they only see you on fight night.

You can sometimes get the big head and overlook things.